Teacher who touched kids in covid hub is struck off

A Paisley teacher has been banned from the profession after being found to have inappropriately touched pupils during periods of Covid-19 restrictions on physical proximity.

David White was overseeing learning at Williamsburgh Primary School’s covid hub for the kids of key workers in January 2021 when he got one child to straddle his legs, touched the backs of pupils and placed his hand close to their bottoms whilst holding the back of their chairs.

The allegations were made by a fellow teacher on her final day at the school before moving onto a new job. She was in a class with White as a ‘second teacher’ on Tuesday, January 12 when what she saw gave cause for concern.

She told a General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) hearing on White’s fitness to practise earlier this year that, due to the pandemic, there were restrictions in place and the children were sitting at their desks with as much social distancing as possible.

But this did not stop White getting too close for comfort.

The witness said he put his hand on a pupil’s lower back – sometimes rubbing the pupil’s back or having his hand in the space between the pupil’s bottom and the back of the chair.

She also claimed White, when sitting, had pulled a pupil closer to him, resulting in the youngster straddling his leg and having their hand rubbed.

She said this occurred for a long enough period for the pupil to try to ‘naturally’ pull away but White’s grip remained tight and he pulled them back.

Another proven allegation concerns White being told by a pupil about an incident at lunchtime where their jumper rode up to reveal their exposed stomach.

White asked the pupil to repeat this three times and the witness said she was only a few metres away and could see his eyes look down to the exposed section of skin.

When children were watching something on a smart board, she said White stretched his legs out and slid the front half of his two feet under a pupil around the hip area.

The teacher raised her concerns with the school’s management and White was eventually suspended.

White admitted to several allegations including holding and rubbing the hands of pupils; placing his hands on the lower back of pupils and rubbing their backs; placing his hands on the chair seat close to the pupils’ bottoms; bending down in front of a pupil until their noses touched or almost touched; and, whilst sitting on a chair with his legs open, holding a pupil’s hand and rubbing the top of their hand.

He disputed the claims that he pulled the pupil close to him until they were straddling his leg; asking a pupil to repeat an action exposing their stomach multiple times and stare at it; and placing his toes under the stomach of a pupil near the hips.

A panel ruled White was unfit to teach and he has now been struck off for his conduct.

It decided White had shown ‘limited insight and remorse’ and said there ‘remained concerns’ about the protection of the public.

In a written ruling, the GTCS said: “The panel had concluded that there had been an abuse of trust; there was potential for harm; the teacher had not fully admitted the allegations and had not demonstrated full reflection, insight, remorse and fully addressed the regulatory concerns identified.

“The panel had also concluded that the matter was not an isolated incident.”

White cannot reapply to become a teacher for 18 months. A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: “We acknowledge the outcome of the hearing.”

The panel concluded that there had been an abuse of trust and there was potential for harm